//------------------------------//
// Trouble in the Shed 
// Story: Equestria Girls: The Railway Stories 
// by friggin normie 
//------------------------------//

Miss Celestia stood in her office and listened to the noise from outside. The passengers were once again angry and on the verge of a riot.

"Why does something have to go wrong every few weeks?" she sighed to herself.

The stationmaster came in with bad news.

"Henry's train is due to leave any minute, ma'am. But the train isn't ready and Henry's sulking in the sheds."

Celestia muttered something under her breath about the big engines and hurried away to find Henry.

When she got to the sheds, the three big engines were arguing with their crews. Even Fluttershy and Tree Hugger, who were known for never raising their voices or losing their tempers, were shouting at their engine.

"Quiet!" shouted Celestia. Silence fell over the sheds like magic. "Show a wheel, Henry. If you head out now, your train won't be too far behind schedule."

"Henry's not going," Gordon grunted.

"Oh, and why is that?"

"Because we won't shunt like common tank engines. That was why you bought Thomas to begin with. Important tender engines like us should have our coaches shunted for us. Only then will we pull them!"

"Tender engines don't shunt," the three engines said firmly.

Their crews gave Celestia apologetic looks.

"So, tender engines don't shunt, eh? We'll see about that." And she drove away to find Edward. "The yard just hasn't been the same since Thomas left."





She found Edward at Wellsworth shunting trucks.

"Leave those trucks here, Edward. The big engines are sulking and I need you to shunt in the yard."

Edward whistled happily. "Thank you, ma'am! That'll be a nice change."

"An' while we're there, we can teach those big engines a thing or two," Applejack chuckled.

And soon, Edward was hard at work shunting trucks for the big engines. Their complaints seemed to stop and the trains ran like clockwork.

But when Celestia came to check on Edward a few days later, all was not well. Edward looked sadder than she had ever seen him and his crew looked incredibly irate.

"Whatever is the matter?" she asked.

She got her answer as Gordon came clanking in. As he puffed pass, he angrily blew steam at the smaller engine while hissing 'traitor.'

"Good gracious! That's no way to act!"

"The big engines have been doing it for days, ma'am," Edward sighed. "They say that tender engines don't shunt, and last night they said I had black wheels."

"Mighty ironic comin' from James," Apple Bloom muttered.

"I haven't, have I ma'am?"

Celestia frowned at the treatment of the old engine. "No, Edward. You're got nice blue one and I'm proud of you! But all the same, we do need a new station pilot."





The next day, Celestia once again found herself on the Mainland, but was upset to find that the yard where she purchased Thomas hadn't any engines to spare.

"I'm sorry, Miss Hatt," said the yard manager. "We've been hit with more work than usual, but I can point you to a workshop where I got most of my engines."

Inside the workshop, Celestia saw many engines. There were big ones, small ones, tender engines, and tank engines too. But none of them were just right. At last, her eyes landed on a smart little green engine with four wheels.

"He's perfect!" Celestia cried. "If I choose you, will you work hard?"

"Yes ma'am, I will! But if I may?"

"What is it?"

"May my friends come with me? They helped me during my trials, ma'am."

"If they agree to it, then I don't see why not. Where are they?"

Almost as soon as she asked that, a loud POP! came from behind her. Celestia later swore that she hadn't screamed.

"Hello!" said a bright young woman with poofy pink hair. "I'm so glad that you chose to buy our friend!"

"Pinkie," said a woman with straighter mauve hair and a flat expression, "we've talked about this. Most people don't like being scared from behind with party poppers."

"Whoops," Pinkie laughed sheepishly and shook Celestia's hand. "The name's Pinkamina Diane Pie, but everybody usually calls me Pinkie because of, well," she giggled and pointed at her hair.

"And I'm her older sister, Maud," the other woman said flatly.

Celestia had to take a moment to get her bearings. "Er, well, it's lovely to meet you both. This engine would be pleased if you joined him on my railway. Would you like to?"

Pinkie smiled broadly. "Are you kidding?! We'd love to keep working with him! Right, Maud?"

Maud nodded in agreement. "But he'll need a name before we set off."

"You're right," Celestia said. "I was thinking about 'Percy.' What do you say?"

The engine grinned from buffer to buffer. "Percy's a perfect name!"

"Excellent! Now, let's get going."





"Edward," Celestia called as Percy puffed into the yard. "This is Percy. Please show him what to do."

"Yes, Miss Hatt," Edward whistled happily.

"Applejack? Apple Bloom? Is that you?" Pinkie asked looking out of the cab.

"Pinkie and Maud?" Applejack laughed. "Fancy seein' y'all here! Edward, these are the some old friends of ours. They lived at the rock quarry a few miles north of the farm."

Edward introduced himself to Percy and his crew and puffed away to show them the ropes. Percy soon learned what he had to do, and the two engines were soon chatting with their crews.

Henry eyed the newcomer suspiciously and decided to have some fun. He rolled up alongside the little engine and tried to wheesh him, but before he could, Percy blew a large cloud of steam at him. Henry jumped and raced back to the sheds.

"That was amazing!" puffed Edward. "I could never wheesh like that!"

"Ha! That was nothing. Back in the workshops, we had to wheesh even louder to make ourselves heard!"

"We even held the record for loudest wheesher!" Pinkie laughed. "Well, we did among the other engines there."

The next morning, Thomas arrived to the sheds.

"Celestia called for me," he said. "I assume it's because you lot need help here."

"Shh," said Twilight. "Here she comes."

"As you all know," the controller started. "The big engines are saying that they won't shunt like common tank engines, so I've decided to leave them in the sheds until they've learned some sense. So I'd like Thomas and Edward to run the mainline for a while, and Percy shall look after the branchline for the time being."

"Little tank engines indeed!" snorted Thomas as he puffed out of the yard. "We'll show them!"





And that's exactly what they did. Thomas was anxious about his coaches, but Percy and his crew Pinkie Promised to take good care of them. While they were on the branch, Thomas and Edward looked after the passengers and goods on the mainlines. There were fewer trains, but the passengers didn't mind. They knew that the big engines were learning a lesson.

Gordon, Henry, and James sat cold, alone, and miserable in the sheds. They wish now that they hadn't been so silly.